Le-pĭd'ĭ-ūm, n.

n. [Lat., from Gr. λεπιδίον, small scale, also a kind of plant, from λεπίς, scale. (Bot.) A genus of herbaceous, cruciferous plants, most of the species of which have a hot, biting taste; peppergrass; pepper-wort; — so called from the scale-like form of the pods, or, according to some, from its supposed usefulness in cleansing the skin of scaly or scurfy impurities.